Lausanne World Pulse – Themed Articles – The Dilemma of State Church Structures in Europe
The term missional Church is an expression of the fact that the Church is not primarily the institution with services, activities and a mission in the periphery. Therefore, the task is not to invent a number of mission programs aiming to attract new churchgoers. Instead, we are challenged to be people of flesh and blood carrying the reality of the gospel within themselves, communicating it through missional being and action. For that reason, it is likely that the famous, but seldom realized, priesthood of all believers will become the basic Church and mission structure. Together with this structure, one could hope for a rediscovering of the gifts of the Spirit in a broad biblical conception.
This focus on church as mission also means that our ability to be magnets attracting people to Christ becomes important. Therefore, a missional Church should emphasize meditation, spirituality, presence, genuineness and lifestyle. Modelled by our brothers and sisters in the South and East, we should become personal carriers of the spiritual reality the world longs for. Before becoming centrifugal we should return to the centre.
And when going out, our primary task is to be witnesses. The missional thinking often and markedly underlines that the Church’s missional call is to be witnesses. Mission is witness. Martyria is the sum of kerygma, koinonia and diaconia—all of which constitute important dimensions of the witness by which the Church is called and sent with. According to Guder, “We are using a missiological hermeneutic when we read the New Testament as the testimony (witness) of witnesses, equipping other witnesses for the common mission of the Church.”7
Thus, testimony becomes a demonstration through the lives and actions of God’s people to the fact that the Kingdom of God becomes present in the disciples of Jesus Christ. This is how the testimony of the gospel defines the identity, activities and communication that the Church has been called to since Pentecost.
Rather than Constantinian structures, we need to mirror the following:
- Humility. A recognition of weakness and crisis
- Variety. Various ways to be church (i.e., family, synagogue and temple)
- Lay-person focused. Focus on lay people as the ordinary pastors, and the ordained pastors as assistants to the ordinary pastors
- Contextualization. A more profound engagement with both culture/context and the Bible
- Defining mission. A reinterpretation of mission as what the Church is, does and says, including: development of spirituality, involvement in the culture of the local community, learning to speak of our faith and learning to listen and to encourage dialogue with people outside the Church.
Endnotes
1. Guder, Darrell. 2000. The Continuing Conversion of the Church. Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA: Eerdmans. 103ff.
2. Ibid. 120.
3. See also Leif Gunnar Engedal and Arne Tord Sveinall’s analysis of Norwegian conditions in Troen er løs. 2002. Oslo: Egede Instituttet.
4. Bosch, David. 1991. Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission. Maryknoll, New York, USA: Orbis Books.
5. Hauerwas, Stanley. 1991. After Christendom? How the Church Is to Behave if Freedom, Justice, and a Christian Nation Are Bad Ideas. Nashville, Tennessee, USA: Abingdon. 18.
6. Shenk, Wilbert R. 1995. Write the Vision: The Church Renewed. Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, USA: Trinity Press International. 38.
7. Guder. 2000. 53-55.
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